Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Semmy1960/Wikipedia Awareness for Lagos State Information Officers

Comments from DSaroyan (WMF)

Hi Semmy1960, thank you for submitting your grant application. After reviewing your grant proposal, we have some questions to learn more about the project and planned activities.

• Do you have sufficient experience and capacity to train 80 people?

Yes I have. I have physically trained 60 students of the Ojo Campus of the Lagos State University (LASU). I have also trained 60 students online, over a two-month period and I still have more students to train. We have a Whatsapp group where updates, mentoring and follow-up is still ongoing. The trained students are currently officially registering their Club with the University. I have also just finished my training to become a Certified Trainer of Trainers for the Reading Wikipedia in Classroom Program. Our graduation will take place on the 16^th of this month (May) and part of the training is to train and be able to work with a large number of teachers.  Implementation of the program will start soon and Bukky658 who is already a Certified Trainer, Tochi  and Agbalagba, will also be joining and supporting me with the training during this project. Bukky 658 for example, has had some experience suggesting that the training of public sector information officers can be advantageous to many other Wikimedia projects we are working on. Training of Public Sector Information Officers should be easier than training any other professionals because Information Officers are communicators mostly already professionally trained to write reports with Objectivity and substantial Neutrality. I am also a trained media practitioner with a post graduate diploma in Print Journalism, so it is very easy for me to get across to many public information officers either as fellow media practitioners or colleagues for training which will be more of interactive sessions. The particular sets of information officers for this proposed training are so enthusiastic. Recently and to my surprise, the Director of Social Media with the Lagos State government called to confirm that they have upfront permission to make photocopies of parts of the iconic Wiki book (How Wikipedia Works), which I presented to the Commissioner and the Permanent Secretary. The Ministry has already distributed parts of the book to their most senior Officers to summarise ahead of the training.

• It seems that you will only have one training session per officer. Did you think that one awareness training will be sufficient?

I will be having six virtual trainings over six weeks. The training will be made up of two physical training meetings, The two physical training sessions . The first physical training session will be on the third of the six-week training programme while the last physical training session will be on the last day of the training, expected to have the Lagos State governor as a Special Guest. There can be no greater boost to Wikipedia acceptability in Nigeria than the loud endorsement with such guest attendance by the Governor of Nigeria’s most populous state and the commercial capital too.

• Could you please reduce the Swags + souvenirs budget by half? Yes i have
• Could you please provide a more detailed breakdown of Social Media Promotion et al. expenses? Yes i have done that
• Newspaper ad 120,000
• Social Media Campaigns, 80000
• Payment of the , Social Media Manager, 30,000
• Banners, 40000
• Banner, design 10,000

• If their project is successful this will be a great example of collaboration with an institutional partner.

As I said earlier I would start the implementation of the Reading Wikipedia in The Classroom later this year and the Information Officers are very important connection to all the government institutions needed for Reading Wikipedia in Classroom. They are needed as stakeholders to facilitate the Reading Wikipedia in The Classroom project. Their recommendation as trained editors is very important. The Lagos State Governor’s endorsement of this training in the use of Wikipedia, as a guest attendance of the training event will go a long way to improve the importance of Wikipedia in Lagos State. This will be a big turning point for Wikipedia Awareness in Lagos State and it will also help the quick facilitation and implementation of the Reading Wikipedia in The Classroom in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial capital and most populous state.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks for your time, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 14:57, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Hello Semmy1960, thanks for your detailed response. Since this is a closed event for information officers and there was a call from the Director of Social Media Lagos State to run the event, we will not support any social media / newspaper promotion expenses. Please remove these expenses from your budget. You can keep the banner / banner design expenses. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 09:05, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Okay, noted.Semmy1960 (talk) 10:43, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Extension Needed

Hello @ DSaroyan (WMF) i will like to extend my report to the end of the month. 31st of August. The training is still ongoing. Thanks Semmy1960 (talk) 10:20, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Hello DSaroyan (WMF), thanks for posting your request. I have reviewed and formally approved it. The new grant end date is 31 August 2022, and the final report is due on 30 September 2022. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 08:42, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Extension Needed

Hello @ DSaroyan (WMF) I will like to extend my report to the end of October. We are waiting to do the physical training and the hall available for the training is fully booked till the end of October because of the series of activities going on in the ministry. Our mentoring session is still ongoing . Thanks! Semmy1960 (talk) 18:32, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

Hello Semmy1960, thanks for posting your request. I have reviewed and formally approved it. The new grant end date is 31 October 2022, and the final report is due on 30 November 2022. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 11:23, 28 September 2022 (UTC)